On his arrival in Paris, Louis XVIII. appointed Talleyrand prime-minister with the direction of foreign affairs; thus leaving him the supreme charge of all diplomatic negotiations, as a mark of gratitude and a pledge of general peace. A treaty was signed, France returned to her ancient territory and her ancient dynasty, as it had been decided after the events of Paris; all diplomatic questions of general interest were afterwards to be settled in the congress of the allied powers, fixed to take place at Vienna, where Talleyrand was appointed ambassador extraordinary to represent the King of France,--a mission he was certainly fully entitled to expect. In the month of November all the French legation arrived at Vienna, and the ambassador displayed great activity. It was necessary to place France in a favourable position, which was very difficult after all the wars and the disasters she had had to encounter; and we must do justice to the great abilities and exertions of Prince Talleyrand, for, in spite of the state of humiliation to which she was reduced, he succeeded in establishing her in the first rank; it was also owing to his intervention that the younger branch of the Bourbons was restored at Naples. Louis XVIII. was the means of saving Saxony from imminent danger, and finally, towards the close of the congress, Talleyrand entered into an intimate league with Metternich and Lord Castlereagh to prevent the encroachments of Russia in Poland, and concluded in the month of February[12] 1815 a secret treaty with England and Austria, where the possibility of war was looked forward to, and the necessary arrangements made for such a contingency. I have given the curious original elsewhere.[13] [12] Signed in the month of March, _vide_ Metternich.--_Tr._ [13] Histoire de la Restauration. During the whole time of the Congress of Vienna, the desire for an alliance with England and a feeling of antipathy for Russia never ceased to possess the mind of Prince Talleyrand; he followed up this system of regard and hatred with the utmost tenacity; he even went so far as to write, in his secret correspondence with Louis XVIII., "that a Russian princess did not come of a sufficiently good family for the Duc de Berri, and that it ought not to be thought of, as the house of Romanof could not place itself on a level with that of Bourbon." This circumstance was never forgotten by the Emperor Alexander, who from this time forward entertained an extreme dislike for Talleyrand, and his aversion became still more violent after the events of 1815, when the secret treaty concluded in the month of March came to his knowledge.